Fire department trains for semi crashes ahead of construction

Janesville firefighter Shawn Genung works to remove a door from a car jammed under a semitrailer Wednesday morning as part of the department's extrication training.

Nick Agro/nagro@gazettextra.com

A crane lowers a semitrailer onto cars to create a complicated extrication situation for firefighters Wednesday morning as part of Janesville Fire Department training.

JANESVILLE—It hadn't been a great morning for the white Mercury wedged beneath the back of a semitrailer at a local gravel pit Wednesday.

A metal bar crushed the car's roof onto its cushy red interior, and two of its detached doors lay a few feet away.

Nor was the day shaping up well for the black Monte Carlo also flattened under the trailer. “FIRE DEPT GOMER” was scrawled in yellow spray paint on its hood.

These decades-old American machines were dying a noble death, though, being intentionally crushed and ripped apart to train Janesville firefighters for the grisly type of crashes authorities fear could become more common during a massive widening project on Interstate 90/39.